There is a coup going on in our country, right now as I write. It's taking place in plain sight. It's been in plain sight for many of us for quite some time now. But now it's obvious to everyone.

This marks the beginning of a series of COUP WATCH articles. It's not a coup by a particular small group of plotters, though there's certainly signs that a variety of deliberate acts were taken to suppress Democratic votes. Rather, it's the fitting climax of a systemically anti-democratic process -- a plutocratic coup taking place in plain sight.

Many people who visit our site may shrug and say, "So What?" They didn't vote for Gore, maybe they didn't vote at all. But this latest turn of events, with the will of the people in Florida *clearly* thwarted, serves as a massive escalation in the ongoing demonstration of just how anti-democratic our system really is.

It's no longer just the anti-WTO demonstrators being shut out of the process.

It's no longer just Ralph Nader being shut out of the debates.

It's now the MAJORITY of the American people who are seeing their votes for President being shut out of the political process. Al Gore may not care about it that much. He seems half-inclined to prefer looking like a good sport to fighting for his own election. But the people whose intended votes have been invalidated are MAD AS HELL.

While many liberal Democrats are their venting spleen on Ralph Nader, further splitting progressive forces, the objective facts of an OPEN COUP are creating an opportunity for reaching out to a much broader constituency. This is what we ought to be focusing our attention on now: fighting against this most fundamental attack on the very principle of democratic self-government.

As an example of what's going now, a story in the Sun-Sentinel (www.sun-sentinel.com) "Widespread voting irregularities marred presidential results in S. Florida" By SCOTT WYMAN contained the following passage:

"Republicans from Gov. Jeb Bush to local party leaders disputed whether any voter problems tipped the scales in favor of the GOP. Jeb Bush, brother of the Texas governor, blasted a lack of specifics about voting problems.

"'Don't overexaggerate the accusations,' he said. 'This is highly important business. What's at stake is the next leader of the free world.'"

A *LACK* of specifics? There are people signing affidavits and filing lawsuits concerning *specific* violations. There are accounts of people turned away from polling places. There are accounts of police roadblocks, ticketting people on the way to vote. There are specifics out the ying-yang.

And *BUSH* is the honest one in this campaign???

The whole political elite is being forced to go through all manner of contortions, just to keep up the charade that the Emperor's New Clothes *really, really, really ARE* the best that's ever been seen. The system is working, they proclaim. No people pouring out into the streets like in Peru or Indonesia.

No, we Americans are a bit slow. Demonstrations have been called nationwide for 11 AM on Saturday. Here in LA, they're at the Westwood Federal Building (11000 Wilshire). The Countercoup website link below has more information.

There is a coup going on in our country, right now as I write. It's taking place in plain sight. Defending democracy means defending the bad as well as the good. Al Gore is no Salvador Allende, that's for sure. But not defending democracy means tacit support for democracy's enemies. And those who would triumph in this coup are remarkably similar to Pinochet.

There is a coup going on in our country, and there's an opposition. Join the opposition.